Verisimilitude

If I were to tell you that today was July 11th, most people would probably agree. Is it likely? Of course.

But what if I asked you what people really thought of you? Something much more mysterious and ambiguous? You'd probably think, "what's the big deal?" Right? I know what my friends think, who they are. Do you? What if, behind the scenes, they held a vital secret that they never let you know? What if they really hated you? Is it likely? No, it can't be. That's impossible. Are you positive? Having doubts?

I would like to think that most people are not under pressure with these questions. But it just shows that sometimes we stick with people maybe we really don't want to be with at all, or shouldn't be. Then why do we stay together? Sympathy? Goodness? Heart? History? Family? Is our feigned gratitude any more accepted than our genuine animosity?

On the contrary, are there people you know that totally pass you by as if they were belittling you, as if they were simply ignorant of your existence? Not acknowledging. Is it possible that these people truly want to be with you, appreciate your friendship, even love you? Are they accustomed to this negative behavior because they're tied in another relationship? Because they're jealous? Is this likely? Are you serious? I don't even want to be with a person that acts as someone they are not. Not even the slightest feeling for him or her surfaces?

Let's be frank. Despite our natural instincts to be a good person, that does not mask our fears. That does not eliminate the sudden urge to deceive others and hide from reality. It's sad because they try so hard to be good people. You can tell they work for it. But will they ever tell the truth? Will they ever realize how much more they hurt others, and especially themselves when they run away from what is? Regardless, you can't be purely happy in these circumstances. Can you? Is it really likely? Doesn't this lack verisimilitude?

The Misconception of Rationality

To a large extent our society encourages rational as opposed to impulsive thinking. Rational thought is what makes one look smart; the logical person is believed more capable to make effective decisions. It is profitable to discover what this rationality is, if it exists at all.

It’s necessary for a person to be called rational to make decisions free from bias. Is this possible? Early psychologists told and their philosophical protégés tell us no – most of our decisions are not made by sequential, cold logic – they are manifestations of suppressed, irrational desires. Even the desire for rationality, so they like to say, may be nothing more than a morphed, childhood desire for the certainty of a father figure’s rigidity.

Of course, pure Freudianism is now thought to be at best fanciful - however popular it may be among literary theorists, unadulterated psychoanalysis has largely been discounted by the current psychological community. But one fact remains – what we do and think is largely unavailable to us. One isn’t aware of everything one does, and often one does act quite mindlessly. The situation is even more problematic with thought. This fact, however, was known long before Freud interviewed his first patient – just consult the ancient meditative traditions.

The question, therefore, isn’t whether people think before they do and know what they think; though classical economists loudly scream to the contrary from the very top of their ivory towers, most of the time people don’t act to their self-interest. What is the question is the following: do we have the capacity to be mindful? That question is not for continental philosophers, the various stripes of psychoanalysts, or those in the tradition of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. That is a question for the individual, for by definition only he or she can perform their own introspection.

-Vishwanath